Project uses Crown lands and so far taxpayers are main customers. Public deserves more transparency. By Ben Parfitt TheTyee.ca The provincial government, First Nations and environmental organizations alike have all hailed it as an ecological triumph and a shining beacon of a new economic order based on conservation principles. Yet when it comes

By Le Li, NBC News BehindTheWall BEIJING — If you have been following China’s state-controlled news media you could be forgiven for thinking that clear blue skies — not oppressive and choking smog — have been the rule this winter. But, finally, they seem to have noticed there is a problem. Days after huge

Tar Sands Blockade EcoWatch Residents of the Houston neighborhood of Manchester are demanding today that the Valero refinery, which has been polluting the air surrounding their homes for decades, reveal exactly what toxins it is forcing residents to breathe. Community members were joined by Gulf Coast activists Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey

United Steel Workers BURNABY, B.C., 20 December 2012 – The B.C. government either didn’t know or didn’t tell British Columbians about the close ties between Chinese-owned coal mining companies in northeastern B.C. and the Chinese government, concludes a new research report by the United Steelworkers. Steelworkers released a research report, “Who Owns Huiyong

Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Nuclear Analyst Greenpeace Canada Hundreds of people told the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) it shouldn’t approve Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) plan to rebuild the four aging Darlington reactors during public hearings last week. People overwhelmingly repeated the same concern: it’s just irresponsible to spend billions on Darlington without first considering

Secrecy the standard as Canada enters Pacific treaty talks. By Michael Geist TheTyee.ca Despite growing opposition in Canada, Ottawa has begun formal participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, aimed at establishing one of the world’s most ambitious trade agreements. As nearly a dozen countries — including the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile,

By David Suzuki & Ian Hanington Science Matters, David Suzuki Foundation Global trade has advantages. For starters, it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food. That could change as oil, the world’s main transport fuel, becomes

By Andrew MacLeod TheTyee.ca Meeting European Union demands for a trade agreement would mean giving up the power to do things like insist Okanagan apples be available in Okanagan hospitals, said British Columbia NDP leader Adrian Dix. “It means essentially we’ve given preferred status to Europeans over Canadian jurisdictions,” said Dix, talking about provisions included in

After years of greenwashing Canada and the world’s “certified” old-growth forest logging as sustainable, and cutting inside deals with industrial loggers, Greenpeace’s rejection of their own logging deal in Canada shows they may be poised to start working to protect – rather than log – Earth’s last primary forests. Standing old forests are

Lindsay Beyerstein Sidney Hillman Foundation Like the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices, the recipe for the fracking fluid known as EXP- F0173-11 is closely guarded. The manufacturer maintains that it doesn’t have to disclose certain secret ingredients that give EXP- F0173-11 the great taste and extreme viscosity* that frackers know and love. A new Texas

Can a boat be designed to clean the water? How does a spider manufacture resilient fiber? We need products that don’t harm us or the environment, and nature’s already done the research. by Sven Eberlein Yes! Magazine Imagine this assignment, says Bill McDonough in a recent TED talk: Design something that makes

Niamh Scallan Toronto Star West-end residents are looking for answers after they discovered that an unassuming building on Lansdowne Ave. is actually a nuclear facility licensed to produce nearly 2,000 tonnes of radioactive uranium dioxide pellets each year. The General Electric-Hitachi plant has been processing natural uranium powder into centimetre-long pellets that are

Environment Canada researchers told to follow script on contaminants in snow BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS Montreal Gazette Environment Canada scientists have confirmed results published by researchers from the University of Alberta showing contaminants accumulating in the snow near oilsands operations, an internal federal document has revealed. Testing by the Environment

This is extremely import information that shows how FIPA impacts the lives of Canadians for the next 31 years. The Harper government is positioned to give away to China the ability to overrule environmental protection in Canada and our ability to shape our economy for Canadians’ benefit. A Conservative MP’s letter attempting to soothe citizens